If a baby had the misfortune to be taken with its mother, or born during the voyage, it usually died of malnutrition. All God wanted was their love in return. Many a despairing man who had been confined to bed due to the physical consequences of an irregular life would find the supernatural peace through the encouragement and charity of good Father Peter. THE Apostolate of St. Peter Claver is unique. To me it is a miracle ! With his familiar face no longer visible in the market and byways, people soon began to forget about the man they had so short a time ago nearly worshiped. Another miracle is about a fierce and rebellious slave named Amete, who resisted the saint's efforts to baptize him for more than 30 years. This, then was their couch, a very uncomfortable one not only for that reason, but especially because they were naked, without any clothing to protect them. Needless to say, only the brave called this fortified city home, but even their courage could not dispel the natural fear that hung heavily in the hot air behind the thick walls. There were two hospitals in Cartagena, one for general cases, served by the Brothers of St. John of God; this was St. Sebastians hospital; and another, of St. Lazarus, for lepers and those suffering from sexually transmitted disease. One he always made use of was a very amateurish, one might even respectfully say ugly, representation of the Judgment. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Learn interesting facts and tidbits about the beloved St. Patrick. For the Christian women he had dresses. To the cynical mind the trust of this extraordinary priest in the goodness of human nature must have seem nave and no doubt could he have known he would have been far more often disappointed than not. Episode 364: What Is the Point of Lent? It was here at this holy sanctuary, high on a mountain in Catalonia that the founder of the Society of Jesus signified his complete conversion, by laying his soldiers sword down at the feet of the famous Madonna. For a while, Father Claver was left in the hands of a young black man who was noticed to be impatient and rough with Claver and sometimes left him nearly helpless for days on end without attention whatever. The order for departure read Make haste. This the jubilant young Jesuit took very literally; so literally in fact, that in imitation of Francis Xavier, he did not even say goodbye to his family, thought the road that led to the port of Seville passed, at one point, within two miles of his home. There were times when he even raised the dead with it. Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - Share Alike License. Claver enlisted bands of assistants, cajoling these people whether by money, goods or services, and as soon as a slave ship entered the port Claver dropped everything and went to wait on its living freight. And to save many souls.. About The Church of Peter Claver: The church that bears his name is open daily. Printable Catholic Saints PDFs In those days, there was hardly such a thing as racial prejudice. In his humility, in order to avoid the attention of the crowd, who would have swarmed about him had they seen him, he had his lame body strapped to a horse in the hopes that the animal would take him swiftly to the leprosarium through the back roads. So, from Jesuit priestly ranks arose this dreamer, the young man Peter Claver, of upper middle class bearing, born in the city of Verdu in Catalonia about the year 1581. Leader: God, + come to my assistance. Two orders, the Trinitarians and the Order of Mercy had this for their object. Three solemn funeral Masses were sung, one of which was under the auspices of the Negroes themselves and their choir; while three orators from different orders tried to outdo one another in extolling the virtues of the man who had so inflamed the city. Exploiters of the Indians are instruments of Satan for the forced servitude of human beings of any race, Christian or not, is a thing abhorrent and damnable. Unfortunately, the Pope was far away from the scene of the crime nor was his strength in arms, but rather in the faith of his subjects, who chose at times to ignore him. That seems a lot, considering that the city numbered only about twelve thousand inhabitants before 1650. In Claver, however, was found a representation of the other side of the Spanish conscience, namely, an abiding affection for humanity especially Gods dark children whom he heard early on were ill-treated with this despicable trade. In the evening, the saint was torn with a violent fever that, together with the intense vehemence of his aspiring love, cast him into a motionless state, in which he lay unconscious, his face betraying in its peaceful composer the transport of love he was undergoing. Shelter those, dear Lord, who bear my company from the evils of fire and all calamity.Teach me to use my car for others need; Nor miss through love of undue speed. Not otherwise could he ever hope to arouse in them shame and contrition for their sins more perfect than that evoked by the picture of hell which he held up as a warning. Sometimes he would have to yield to nature and collapse. Saint of the Day for Wednesday, March 1st, 2023, First Station: Jesus is condemned to death, 5 prayers you should say this Lenten Season News. It would be a tangent too labor-some for the continuity of this article to demonstrate at any length how forcefully and wisely the Catholic Church has handled the slavery problem throughout its history. Others were lured like animals into anchored galleons by novel gadgets, bells, magnets, beads, and such gimmicks, only to see the huge vessels glide away from shore. He stayed there, except to attend to the missions nearby, like Our Lady on Calvarys hill. He had a steady confidence that God would care for them and, not his least worry were the slave owners whom he did not deem beyond the mercy of God. To cover the feverish and naked, to wash wounds, to shroud women penitents and to place upon it the abandoned sick, until he could procure them a mat for a bed. He stayed there in his confessional until midday. St. Peter obtained his first degrees at the University of Barcelona. The rumor of his approaching death spread around the city like wildfire, everyone suddenly remembered the saintly priest again, and numbers came to kiss his hands before it was too late; his room was stripped of everything that could be carried off as relics. Claver made use of pictures, in accordance with standard catechetical pedagogy of the time, showing our Lord suffering on the cross for them; above all did he try to instill in them some degree of self respect, to give them at least some idea that as redeemed human beings they had dignity and worth, even if as slaves they were outcast and despised. When he was only thirteen, his mother Ana died, and within the same month his twenty-year-old brother followed her to the grave. While studying philosophy at Majorca, the young religious was influenced by St. Alphonsus Rodriguez to go to the Indies and save "millions of perishing souls.". Until death! the good father quietly responded. The slaves, the missions, the hospitals, the prisons, the confessional, over and over again, for four decades, the same monotonous routineHow long shall the ass be thus harnessed Father? the good brother has asked. The supreme charity of our saint was most vividly portrayed in his solicitude for the sick; and Cartagena, in its infant years, had plenty of sick and very sick people. A child could understand it, and these blacks were like children. A sign of new things over the horizon was registered in the coined term The New World. It was their privilege to be the slaves of the slave of slaves. The devil always wants to create division, and it is what he sets out to do by tempting Jesus. It is a fact as marvelous as it was true, that while Father Claver labored in Cartagena, not one Moslem went to his grave without first embracing the Catholic Religion. I never heard him complain. The gruesome list goes on and on: coarse horsehair cords tied around his toes, arms, and legs; sharp pointed crosses, strapped by more coarse rope around his chest and back; a sharp studded girdle about his lions and thighs. Here he met Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez, the man who was to thoroughly inspire him and send him on his lifes mission. He is known as the "Apostle of the West Indies" and the "Slave to the Slaves." Peter Claver was born in Verdu, Catalonia, on July 26, 1580, of prosperous parents. He loved to entertain. To keep from fainting, he applied periodically a handkerchief dipped in wine to his sweaty face. In the autumn Claver would go among the traders and seamen, who landed at Cartagena in great numbers off supply ships and well as slave ships. Miracles (2) Montessori education (2) New Year (2) O . From whom does the devil want to divide Jesus? After this we began an elementary instruction about baptism, that is, the wonderful effects of the sacrament on body and soul. This miraculous healing led to the canonization of Peter Claver as a saint of the Catholic Church. Then we divided the sick into two groups: one group my companion approached with an interpreter, while I addressed the other group. When he is despised and neglected, he is still dumb. Claver was a man who knew pain and knew its value. In addition, African chiefs easily bartered away to the white traders their criminals, those captured in war, the mentally unstable, and the sick and other social misfits. In particular, he had a relish for good music, and believe it or not, he was especially fond of a new palatal delight called chocolate; however, lest you chocolate lovers get overconfident, the first time he tasted the sweet was his last. To counter the Protestant revolt, the Jesuits, founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola, had emerged from among the most talented of religious leaders for their time sworn to allegiance to their superior general and to the pope in Rome. For two days the people marched past the sacred remains with great solemnity and emotion, kissing his hands and feet; first the nobles, and finally the Negroes. In fact, the Catholic Church, for so doing, granted them spiritual benefits. At the age of twenty he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Tarragona. One might say that Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez has at that moment planted his own soul into Saint Peter Claver. This extreme wealth passing in and out of the port was what attracted the avaricious entrepreneurs to settle there. Peter Claver crossed the seas but once, and never quitted, for the rest of his life, the country to which obedience restricted him. And in fact, convinced as they were that they had been brought here to be eaten, any other language would have proved utterly useless. You know the story the conditions under which they were conveyed across the Atlantic were as foul and inhuman as to be beyond belief. There were times when the streets of Cartagena and other more viable settlements would flow with blood from such cruel assaults. There never was slavery more inhuman, more murderous and more complete over the souls as well as the bodies of its victims than what we have seen in our century in those countries swallowed up by the Communists. Episode 361: Whether God Exists? the Five Proofs, The Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Outside the Church there is no Salvation (Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus), Saint Benedict Center in Richmond, New Hampshire, Brother Francis, M.I.C.M. He was a shining light in a dark time. Cursed be the law of the false prophet Mahomet, as well as all those who follow it. And on and on the stories go. What the good priest restored in these unloved and abused people was inestimable it was their sacred dignity, their divine royalty, as adopted brothers of Christ the King.Nor could Claver forget the Negroes one they were sent away from Cartagena. St. Peter Claver, Spanish San Pedro Claver, (born 1581, Verd, Spaindied September 4, 1654, Cartagena, Colombia; canonized 1888; feast day September 9), Jesuit missionary to South America who, in dedicating his life to the aid of enslaved Africans, earned the title of "apostle of the Negroes." Cartagena, Colombia He was sent to study at the University of Barcelona. He was unable to take a step. He refused to be satisfied with a sloppy performance; each slave had to do it perfectly. The ways of God seem hard at times. When we approached their quarters, we thought we were entering another Guinea. Mary Theresa has worked a miracle for me." Upon hearing the commotion, the doctors ran to the ward and were dumbfounded. Worse still, kings encouraged rivals to crime so that they could be convicted and sold as criminals. For the rest of his life pain hardly left him and a trembling in his limbs whats medically titled today, a Parkinsons disease - made it impossible for him to celebrate Mass. St. Peter Claver (1580-1654) was a Spanish Jesuit missionary to Latin America. The convicts had common morning and evening prayer, litanies and the daily Rosary. It officially closed in. Sitting on a rock, he would put his cloak over their shoulders, if it was cold, and hear their confessions. After receiving Baptism from John in the Jordan, Jesus was called by the Father my beloved Son (Mt 3:17), and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove (cf. St. Peter Claver. It is estimated that in forty years Peter Claver instructed and baptized over 300,000 slaves. After Easter Peter Claver was back on the road instructing newly-arrived slaves and tending the sick. In the afternoon hours he would hear only the confessions of the Negresses, and then, in the evening, beginning at six oclock, he would devote himself strictly to the men. With the help of a tile we pulled some live coals together and placed them in the middle near the dying men. Kind and patient to all, for some of his penitents he prescribed the remedy of hairshirts and scourges. But after a week or two, hunger, sickness and disease numbed these kinds of outbursts. Even in sickness he would not ease up. They all had souls to save. The holy priest would bend over, and with his own arms, he would lift up the sickliest. I love thee much. Home - Knights of Peter Claver Spreading FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE through Friendship, Unity, and Christian Charity Our Faith What you Need to Know Online Store Register Now! The miracles, the sermons, the labors in the confessional, the work with all the poor and the sick, the charity for all the Negroes, seemed to be temporarily forgotten by all as the saint silently prayed for death to come. Like typhoid, dysentery, scurvy, and incurable ulcers and cancers wreaked havoc, especially among the undernourished blacks. Cajeten Pereira Bishop House In total six people were killed including the priest and three nuns killed in road accident at Sumer. Book a Tour Virtual Tour Ways to Give Online Donations In gratitude for the Fayette parish's support, the Voices of Peter Claver is opening the January concert to the public. Here he had more opportunities, even than in the slave pens, to satisfy has craving to love the unlovable. The Church has always had a difficult time influencing the worlds of business and commerce. Father Claver applied himself for seven long years to the slave apostolate before he took his final vows in the Society. This time he stumbled into the Jesuit residence with a body that could scarcely be recognized. X-rays later revealed no . 1615, he was ordained a priest of God at Cartagenas Cathedral, at the side altar at the right side of the sanctuary that remains to this day. St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, SJ (1533-1617) The next time he left was to hear the confession of the holy laywoman, Dona Isabel who, sick and bedridden, was afraid that it might be her last opportunity to speak to the saint in this life. Then they would learn the Our Father and the Hail Mary. Prizes were given to those who learned their prayers first. He had felt the nails, he had habitually endured the bitterness of lifes vinegar and gall, he had been mocked; but as yet Claver was never alone. A year later he was ordained. The saint spent one more year in the Novitiate at Tunga, high in the mountains of Colombia. Father Claver never tired of persuading the slaves from the occasions of sin or of urging the owners to care for the souls of the slaves; he became so great a moral force in Cartagena that a story is told of a slave frightening off a prostitute who was pestering him in the street saying, Look, here comes Father Claver. And the woman ran away. All witnesses of the miracle agree that when the man of God arrived at his friends house, to cure the sick girl, he found the maiden quite cold and dead. Colonization and exploration was, in all parts, viewed an evil specter descended on pristine lands. They needed a voice to ease their burden, not to make it heavier with bitterness and anger. But his sullen-ness and even the sadness reflected from his deep-set eyes were not the result of his excessive mortification. He obtained his first degrees at the University of Barcelona. When he is overloaded, he is dumb. Some were so debased as to sell their own children for gain. Clavers problem was that he was sensitive. St. Peter Claver. He informed his father of his intention to join the Society. Stay up to date with the latest news, information, and special offers. The result of his excessive mortification interesting facts and tidbits about the Church has always a... 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